PUBLICATION
Foxc1 establishes enhancer accessibility for craniofacial cartilage differentiation
- Authors
- Xu, P., Yu, H.V., Tseng, K.C., Flath, M., Fabian, P., Segil, N., Crump, J.G.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-210128-24
- Date
- 2021
- Source
- eLIFE 10: (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Keywords
- chromosomes, developmental biology, gene expression, zebrafish
- Datasets
- GEO:GSE157575
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Cartilage/embryology
- Cell Differentiation
- Chondrocytes/metabolism
- Chondrogenesis*
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/embryology
- Forkhead Transcription Factors/genetics*
- Forkhead Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Neural Crest/embryology
- Skull/embryology*
- Zebrafish/embryology*
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics*
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- PubMed
- 33501917 Full text @ Elife
Citation
Xu, P., Yu, H.V., Tseng, K.C., Flath, M., Fabian, P., Segil, N., Crump, J.G. (2021) Foxc1 establishes enhancer accessibility for craniofacial cartilage differentiation. eLIFE. 10:.
Abstract
The specification of cartilage requires Sox9, a transcription factor with broad roles for organogenesis outside the skeletal system. How Sox9 and other factors gain access to cartilage-specific cis-regulatory regions during skeletal development was unknown. By analyzing chromatin accessibility during the differentiation of neural crest cells into chondrocytes of the zebrafish head, we find that cartilage-associated chromatin accessibility is dynamically established. Cartilage-associated regions that become accessible after neural crest migration are co-enriched for Sox9 and Fox transcription factor binding motifs. In zebrafish lacking Foxc1 paralogs, we find a global decrease in chromatin accessibility in chondrocytes, consistent with a later loss of dorsal facial cartilages. Zebrafish transgenesis assays confirm that many of these Foxc1-dependent elements function as enhancers with region- and stage-specific activity in facial cartilages. These results show that Foxc1 promotes chondrogenesis in the face by establishing chromatin accessibility at a number of cartilage-associated gene enhancers.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping